Friday Night Lights: Texas Forever

Every once in a while, a show comes along that hits you right in the heart. Friday Night Lights delivers in such a fashion. It matters not that I grew up in Texas. I think most of us know that high school football is a religion in parts of the state. With the fictional town of Dillon, TX occupying the geographical base for the show, Executive Producer Peter Berg hits home with those who live, eat, and breathe high school football. The players are heralded, the coaches immortalized, and the town literally deems the year a success or failure based on the performance of some 15-18 year old kids who take center stage every Friday night in the fall.

What makes this show so noteworthy, aside from the brilliantly acted and developed characters, is the freedom which the production team allows and encourages. The actors are so dialed in as to who their characters are that they are given free reign to ad lib and make adjustments to their lines so they can most accurately reflect their character, all the while delivering the required component of being true to their character's persona. Additionally, the camera operators are trained to follow the actors, as opposed to encircling them which is more typical with these types of productions. There were no extensive rehearsals, which kept it real. There is a distinct connection from the people on TV to those sitting on the couch watching at home. We all can relate to Dillon, TX and the trials and tribulations each of the characters go through. Like "The Wire," Friday Night Lights tells a litany of stories and provides closure without it being overly dramatic and over-acted, and it assumes the audience is keeping up. It is superb TV cinema.

I'm not here to do a season by season breakdown of this program. If you have not watched it, you are missing out. Period. Incidentally, if you do not know, the series is extrapolated from the movie "Friday Night Lights" which is based on the book of the same name, authored by H.G. "Buzz" Bissinger, who covered the 1988 Odessa Permian Panthers. The book is assumed to be factual as it reads like a documentary. Little did the author know that he provided the platform to what I consider one of the greatest television series ever produced. 

Not surprisingly, Peter Berg also utilized real life experiences in the program's pilot. He was in the audience in 2003 at a Texas high school football game in San Antonio, TX. At this game, David Edwards, a player from San Antonio Madison, suffered a spinal injury resulting in paralysis. The show's pilot episode centers around this type of injury to star quarterback, Jason Street (Scott Porter). Trust me when I tell you I am giving nothing away here. Berg mentioned that his being in the audience that night had a profound effect on him and he wanted to feature this all too common high school injury in the show. The struggles of Street due to the injury are real-life oriented. He goes through all of the stages of grief in very realistic fashion complete with struggles, triumphs, contempt, anger, sorrow, life reevaluation, and a traitorous girlfriend, Lyla Garrity (Minka Kelly) and best friend, Tim Riggins (Taylor Kitsch). No need to connect the dots here as these two are distraught over what has happened to their friend/boyfriend and seek each other out for, ahem, comfort. The aforementioned is just one example of the realism that occurs during this series. I cannot stress enough how spot on it is.

We begin with Coach Eric Taylor, portrayed and acted perfectly by Kyle Chandler. Coach Taylor is exactly what you would picture: a football-is-life worldview of his Dillon, TX life at the legendary high school program. His wife, Tami (Connie Britton), is the quintessential coaches wife, searching for meaning to her life as the family unit revolves around the successful career of her husband. Their daughter, Julie (Aimee Teegarden), personifies being the daughter of a coach, she is completely annoyed by football and begins hooking up with former backup QB Matt Saracen (Zack Gilford). It should be noted, Gilford's portrayal of the "thrust into the limelight" QB is, in the words of one Vincent LaGuardia Gambini, "dead on balls accurate." When the Taylor's have a discussion or argument, it is real. As in real life, they talk over each other while trying to make their point. There is the ten seconds of silence which occurs at the end of these heated conversations indicating neither is ready to give up their ground. We all can relate to their lives. Coach Taylor is so much more than a mere football coach. He is the warden, father, and counselor to his entire team. He drives them ultra hard and expects nothing but perfection. You can see the passion in his eyes for what he does. You can also see the utmost respect in his players' eyes as they emphatically know that he always has their back so long as they are honest and forthright with him. 

And we haven't begun to uncover the plethora of characters that occupy the balance of the scripts and episodes. From the pinnacle of geekdom stems one Landry Clarke (Jesse Plemons). He is a brilliant, insecure, and in love with Tyra Collette (Adrianne Palicki), who is the original "tough" girl complete with a beautifully full-plated armor exterior, and a mad love for the aforementioned Tim Riggins. Yes, there are trysts, drama, and back-stabbings aplenty. Just like the high school time period we all remember. There is the moderately corrupt local business man, Buddy Garrity (brilliantly played by Brad Leland), who is always trying to influence Coach Taylor with respect to anything that remotely has to do with the football team. We all know a Buddy Garrity. He still sports high school state championship rings as if they are cherished from a long forgotten era in the NFL. Nothing is as important to him as the Dillon Panthers (Berg kept the Odessa mascot namesake). Not family. Not friends. Not business. He is always angling to get his way with respect to his desires for the Panthers. But, ultimately he has his "come to Jesus meeting" with respect to doing the right thing.

While there are many other characters over the course of five seasons, the final one I will cover is the "Smash." Of course, every team has a Brian "Smash" Williams (Gaius Charles). In the beginning of the show, he is an arrogant, jock prototype, who creates feuds with teammates, looks to hook up with the school hotties, and is so obsessed with his own on-field performance, he ends up dabbling with performance enhancing drugs. A big D-1 scholarship is his sole goal in life as we meet him and he literally stops at nothing to accomplish this feat. He's from the poor side of the tracks and his momma is the only person to be able to instill fear into his heart. Smash's character has a litany of peaks and valleys to offer the viewers. So much potential, so athletically gifted, yet so narrow-minded in his quest to be the best. We all knew a kid like Smash in high school and possibly beyond.

My sincere hope is if you enjoy solid productions with excellent writing and realistic cinematography, and you have yet to take in Friday Night Lights, make the commitment right now. Go to Amazon and order the first four seasons. Trust me here. You will not need to test drive the first season and decide if you want season two. Go get all four, then order the fifth and final season once it is released later this year, and you will have in your possession some of the best television programming ever created. The series finale delivered in the ways I hoped and knew it would. I won't even review this episode as that is a disservice to those who are behind on this journey. I hate that the lights have gone out in Dillon, TX. It's been a while since I was truly bummed about a show not proceeding. I truly wish it was Texas forever.